3-year-old dead, 3 people hospitalized after West Side fire

CAPTIONS

Donte Benamon Donte Benamon, 14, stands outside of his burned out home. Benamon, who was home at the time of the fire, said the fire started when the 3-year-old was using the stove. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune)

3:33 p.m. CST, February 15, 2014

A 3-year-old boy was killed and another child critically injured when an extra-alarm fire swept two homes in the South Austin neighborhood Friday night, authorities said.

Two adults were also hospitalized, one of them in critical condition, after the fire that broke out just before 8 p.m. in the 100 block of North Laramie Avenue.

Firefighters arrived within three minutes of the first 911 call and found heavy fire on the porches of two occupied homes, Chicago Fire Department District Chief Don Hroma said. Fire officials called for an EMS Plan 1, which sent seven ambulances to the scene, and later elevated the fire to a 2-11 alarm.

Two children were taken from the scene to local hospitals in critical condition, officials said. One of them, Jaantwiaon Edwards, was declared dead at Loretto Hospital at 9:34 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Edwards lived in one of the two-story brick buildings that caught fire.

A woman in her 50s or 60s was taken to West Suburban Medical Center in critical condition, and a 40-year-old police officer taken to a local hospital after suffering from smoke inhalation, authorities said. The police officer was listed in fair-to-serious condition.

The Chicago Red Cross was helping 20 people displaced by the fire, according to the organization's official Twitter account.

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3-year-old dead, 3 people hospitalized after West Side fire